Friday, March 11, 2011

Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology

“A major cause of mankind’s problems began 75 million years ago when the planet Earth, then called Teegeeack, was part of a confederation of ninety planets under the leadership of a despotic ruler named Xenu. “Then, as now, the materials state, the chief problem was overpopulation.” Xenu decided “to take radical measures.” The documents explained that surplus beings were transported to volcanoes on Earth. “The documents state that H-bombs far more powerful than any in existence today were dropped on these volcanoes, destroying the people but freeing their spirits—called thetans—which attached themselves to one another in clusters.” Those spirits were “trapped in a compound of frozen alcohol and glycol,” then “implanted” with “the seed of aberrant behavior. When people die, these clusters attach to other humans and keep perpetuating themselves.”

The New Yorker recently published an article about Paul Haggis, one of Scientology's most prominent former members. The piece covers how Haggis entered Scientology, the history of L. Ron Hubbard (Scientology's founder), contreversy within the organization, and why Haggis denounced it. Above is an excerpt of the article explaining what Scientologists believe in.

The article is pretty beefy, coming in at 26 pages. I read about four or five pages a night before I went to bed. Is Scientology a cult or a legit religion? Everyone has their own opinion, but this article definitely sheds some light on the organization's darker side.You can read the article on the New Yorker's site here.